(Yicai) May 28 -- The Chinese enterprise solid state drive market is expected to reach a size of USD9.1 billion in 2029, according to a forecast by market research firm International Data Corporation.

The prediction was based on the fact that China's enterprise SSD market grew 188 percent to nearly USD6.3 billion last year from the year before, IDC said on its website today.

Major NAND suppliers have adjusted their production capacity based on market trends over the past year, IDC noted, adding that the rise in storage demand driven by artificial intelligence and smart computing applications led to a shift in supply and demand dynamics, resulting in an increase in the prices of enterprise SSD modules.

Many manufacturers have adopted the 3D NAND technology as their mainstream solution and launched high-capacity SSD products, significantly improving storage performance and density, thus creating the conditions for the large-scale application of enterprise SSDs, IDC explained.

Cloud computing and internet companies are increasingly investing in AI. The evolution and modernization of digital infrastructure, the surge in cloud-centric architectures, and the rise of data-intensive workloads such as AI are further accelerating enterprises' demand for solid-state storage, according to IDC.

Global leaders Solidigm and Samsung Group held the largest share of the Chinese enterprise SSD market last year. Samsung maintained its global leadership position because of its comprehensive technological capabilities and high-end products, but it faced some challenges in China due to competition from domestic firms and cost pressures.

Chinese storage companies are narrowing the gap with international brands through technological innovations in high-capacity products and controller chips and supply chain and service localization.

As investment in AI remains strong, demand for server and storage infrastructure products will continue to grow, said Xin Yi, server market research manager at IDC. This will lead to surging demand for high-performance, high-density NAND, which will further drive the adoption of enterprise SSDs in AI servers and enterprise data centers, Xin added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione